Lewes 0 St Albans 2.

Lewes are in danger of seeing their season fall apart.

In the space of ten days the Rooks have been rocked by a succession of blows.

They have dropped eight points from three games to fall behind Eastbourne Borough in the race for the Blue Square south title.

Injuries and illness have decimated the squad to a point where they look anything but title contenders.

Off the field the club have had to deal with malicious - and totally unfounded - rumours that they are in financial trouble.

With eight games to go, the picture is not pretty.

The Rooks are a point behind Borough who have a game in hand and who look like they are in top form.

The championship race is far from over but Lewes manager Steven King is facing a huge task just to keep his side in contention as the season reaches its climax.

With two games coming up over Easter, King needs to find that magic touch because not only are Lewes dropping points but they are not playing well either.

Saturday's defeat to relegation battlers St Albans was no less than Lewes deserved but it needs to be put into context.

Lewes were already without Simon Wormull and Dale Binns before Tom Davis suffered a twisted knee in training on Thursday which could rule him out for the season.

In addition, Hamid Barr was missing through illness while Andy Drury, who was a doubt up to ten minutes before kick-off due to diarrhoea and sickness, had to come off at half-time.

Critics have accused Lewes of over-playing their injury situation but take Drury, Wormull, Davis and Binns out of any midfield in the league and you will suffer.

Paul Kennett, who quit football a month ago due to work commitments, received an SOS phone call at 11pm on Friday to help out while Jean-Michel Sigere played the entire second half despite still suffering with a hamstring injury.

Although Eastbourne Borough's next four games are favourable on paper, their run-in is tough which is why King must pick up his players immediately.

He said: "I have got to keep telling them that they are good players and they are up there for a reason.

"We are certainly not going to throw in the towel. There is only one point in it, Eastbourne have a game in hand but their run-in is tough. We have got to keep going. Next week it could be them being turned over.

"The injuries are killing us because it is some of our best players who are missing. We have lost width with Binnsy, ten goals with Wormull, 12 goals with Drury and now Tom Davis is out for the season. You can only plug holes for so long.

"On Saturday we went out there with Andy Drury who had diarrhoea and sickness before kick-off, I had to call in Paul Kennett who hasn't played for six weeks and who had retired while (goalkeeper) Steve Williams played with a cracked bone in his hand.

"Contrary to what people say we cannot go out and get another player whenever we want. It is not like that, we have budgets to keep to and if players are injured we have still got to pay them."

Williams was at fault for St Albans' second goal in the closing stages, spilling a shot from Akanni-Sunday Wasiu which allowed Paul Hakim an easy tap-in.

Lewes were already chasing the game by then, having trailed from the 30th minute when Lee Clarke scored a cracker from 20 yards.

Apart from the injuries, there were no complaints from Lewes. The visitors, who have signed a number of new players in an attempt to avoid relegation, were worthy winners and had several other chances to score.

Paul Booth had Lewes' only notable chance, a delicate chip which Saints keeper Paul Bastock did superbly well to push over for a corner. That could have made it 1-1 but in truth Lewes did not deserve an equaliser.

King said: "It was a very flat performance. Anxiety set in as the game wore on, we went longer and longer and that is not our game."

Lewes: Williams, Conroy, Barness (sub Legge 83), Kennett, Robinson, Simpemba, Drury (sub Sigere 46), Holloway, Ide (sub Groves 77), Booth, Cade. Subs not used: France, Hamilton.

St Albans: Bastock, Fisher, Cousins, Thurlbourne, B.Martin, Frater, Sulaiman (sub Hunt 90), Clarke, Wasiu (sub Twomey 90), Hakim, Bruce. Subs not used: McKie, Deen, S.Martin.

Referee: Simon Knapp (Pucklechurch).

Attendance: 717.

What's gone wrong at Lewes?